Artist / DJ Richie Hawtin has created a gorgeous looking Google Map for his current world tour. Custom map tiles have been used to give the map a distinct design. The dot-matix look of the design is continued in the custom made map markers and information windows.
Dates on the tour are displayed on the map and a slide-out sidebar shows the dates in list form.
The 'One City' world tour continues until December.
London has today entered into the fantasy world of steampunk. In what seems like an episode from 2D Goggles a number of hot air balloons have been flying over London blasting out music to the populace below.
Don't worry if you don't live in London or if you have missed any of the balloons' flights as you can replay it all on a handy Google Maps based application.
The map shows each of the hot air balloons and their flight track. If you click on the map marker of any of the hot air balloons you can then listen to the music that was played during the flight.
Soul Mirror This HTML5 video from Japanese band Soul River integrates with your Twitter and Facebook accounts and with your webcam to create a truly wild and amazing web musical video.
The video was obviously inspired by The Wilderness Downtown's experimental HTML5 video. Like the Wilderness Downtown video Soul River makes use of numerous browser windows and your geographical location.
Using your browser's geolocation detection capabilities the video displays a Google Map of your location. The Soul River singer is then shown walking across the map. There is a lot more amazing stuff in the full video but really you have to watch it yourself.
To watch the video you will need a browser that supports HTML5. Use Chrome if you have it.
Trance Around the World with Above & Beyond Above & Beyond's weekly 'Trance Around The World' radio show is syndicated on over 237 FM radio stations worldwide with a total estimated audience of 30 million. With such a wide range appeal it only seems natural to allow trance fans around the world to share their thoughts with this animated Google Map.
The map animates through the latest Twitter messages with the hashtags #tatw or #tatw350. The map also shows the locations of all of radio stations around the world that broadcast the show and the locations of upcoming trance events.
The map is also doing a very good job in promoting the TATW 350 event at the LA Palladium this Friday. There will be a seven hour broadcast of the event through local radio stations, Sirius XM and online via DI.FM and TATW350.com.
Transmeet.Tv Music Map Transmeet.Tv is a Google Maps application for finding concerts and festivals. At the moment the site seems most active in Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia, although events are also listed in other countries.
Upcoming musical events are displayed on the map using categorised map markers. The lettered map markers help identify the musical genre of each listed concert.
When you click on a map marker the map disappears behind a lightbox type window that displays information about the event and also gives you access to a whole host of rich media. It is possible to listen to music by the featured artists, browse photographs, view videos from YouTube and post about the event to Facebook and Twitter.
Tom Petty Tour Map Tom Petty is using the Google Maps API to show the locations of gigs on his latest tour. Pre-sales for the tour start on Wednesday, March 3rd.
Each of the tour dates are shown the map with red map markers. If you click on a marker an information window opens with the address of the venue. The information window includes a 'get directions' option so you can get driving directions to the venue.
You can even listen to a Tom Petty track as you browse the map.
tweeturmusic This mashup of play.me and Twitter allows you to play music tracks and then tweet to your friends what you are listening to. The site features a Google Map on its home page that animates through the latest people to listen to tracks on the site.
The Google Map is really incidental to the main purpose of the site, which is to share your musical preferences with your Twitter friends. The tag cloud is probably more useful and provides a good guide to what is currently being listened to and a quick navigational aide to the more popular tracks.
One major problem with the site is that you are restricted to only 30 seconds of each track. Those living outside the USA are restricted to only 30 seconds of playing time for each track.
Screencast of the Editors' Street View video (minus the music)
I'm constantly amazed at the imaginative hacks developed using Google Maps. This Street View video certainly had my jaw hitting the floor on more than one occasion.
London band 'Editors' have created a unique listening experience for their new album ‘In This Light And On This Evening’ using Google Street View as the backdrop for their tracks (with some added views of their own). On entering the site it looks like the normal Google Maps Street View interface, albeit with added music, except for a radar type control.
Use the radar control to navigate to the red arrows. Clicking on the red arrows takes you to the added Street Views, featuring the members of the band. The new additions consist of some rather nice 360 degree images shot at night. Within each location the user will hear music from the album, which was inspired by the mood and magic of London at night. Each of the nine tracks on the album has it’s own location.
The images feature the band and a group of their fans performing surreal activities which reportedly have hidden meanings relating to the songs - see if you can work out what they are?
Posse on Broadway Google Maps user Adam Cohn has created a Google My Map to track the locations in the Sir-Mix-A-Lot track 'Posse on Broadway'. The map shows the Seattle locations that the posse visit in the song.
I thought it would be kind of cool to use the YouTube API alongside the Google Maps API to produce an animated map that would work in tandem with the song. My animated version is here. Unfortunately there is a bug in the map that stops uploading the locations after 2.30. I can't find the bug but I'm sure someone who's a lot brighter than me will be able to find it and point it out in the comments!
